Improvement in baskets



UNITED STATES PATENT SHEPHERD H. WHEELER, OF NILES, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN BASKETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 141,023, dated July 22, 1873; application filed January 24, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

State of Michigan, have invented certain Improvements in Basket-Bottoms, of which the following is a specification:

The nature of this invention relates to a new method of constructing basket-bottoms; and consists in making the bottom of short pieces of laminae of the same class as that commonly used in constructing the body of stave-baskets, and in the manner in which the bottom is applied to the body of the backet, the object being to improve the quality,reduce the heft,

and cheapen the cost of the basket as a whole.

In the accompanying drawing, making a part of this specification, Figure 1 shows a vertical transverse section through the diameter of a basket embodying my invention. Fig. 2 shows a plan of the bottom.

The letters of reference marked thereon indicate the parts represented by a similar letter in the written part of this specification, of which- A A represent the staves or uprights of which the body of the stave-basket is usually made, when a board bottom is employed, but instead of a board bottom I construct the bottom by using short pieces of laminae, B, of the same class as that used in constructing the body of the basket A A. A sufficient number of these short pieces are laid crossing each other at the center dividing the circle of the bottom radially until no vertical openings are found through the bottom within the circle of the base-hoops-(l O. This bottom is then pressed into the desired shape in the usual manner of forming stave-baskets and need not be described here. The outer series of the staves A A are then placed in position, leaving an opening in the center about equal in diameter to the inside diameter of the base; hoops G (l. The bottom B is then applied over said opening with the outer ends of pieces *3) B extending beyond and upon the inner ends of staves A. The inner series of staves A are then applied vertically over the outer series, and all are securely fastened by means of nails driven through the outside and inside base-hoops O (J, said hoops being so placed as to bring the overlapping ends of A A and B between them. The body of the basket is then formed and bound with hoops, and provided with handles in the usual manner. Now, it will be seen that a short class of laminae may be used in constructing a basket, as above described, that would be waste matter in the usual way of constructing stave-baskets, and the base of the basket will be strengthened by extending the ends of laminae B up on or between the staves A A, as seen at l), where the basket is most exposed to wear, and but about one-half the material will be required to make this bottom that is commonly used in basketbottoms, thus reducing the weight and increasing the capacity of the basket to hold a given quantity.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is- A basket-bottom, consisting of the short pieces B crossing each other radially at the center with their outer ends secured between the outside and inside series of staves A A by the-bottom hoops (l G, substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

SHEPHERD H. WHEELER.

Witnesses:

OYRUs M. ALWARD, IRA 0. WHEELER. 

